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Nerdy April Needs YOU!

Wow. I have been stressed-to-the-max lately, mostly due to working my grad school capstone proposal through the widgets and attempting to get it approved. Ugh...its been exhausting!

But, I have some great news to report: my grad school capstone proposal has been APPROVED! And there's more to it than just that.

I had written a **very** rough draft of my proposal in a previous class and
the instructor thought it was a viable project, so I decided to beef it up a
bit and present it to my capstone professor. The title? EVALUATING THE
FEASIBILITY AND SAFETY OF TYPE 1 DIABETIC ASTRONAUTS. Cool huh? I thought so.
It turns out my professor also thought so, which was a bit of a shock to me. My
degree will be in Aeronautical Science so I thought he might not understand the
issue of certifying medically imperfect astronauts, but I tried anyway. It
turns out his wife is a Type 1 and he became very interested in my project.
During our phone interview he told me most students just do the minimum, they
pick an easy topic, like the FAA’s NextGen program, UAVs, or advanced cockpit
systems. “But,” he said, “this topic is new and different. You will be a
pioneer in this area. This could turn into a big deal.” I was absolutely
floored.

After my professor approved my proposal (it took about 5 re-writes), he had
to send it to another professor in the UK for approval. In another twist of
fate, the UK professor approved my proposal upon the first submittal and
replied, “My son is a Type 1. If it is ok with you (meaning my professor), I
would like to read April’s capstone once you have graded it. This is important,
I would be willing to support independently if needed.”

My professor replied that the UK professor has never asked to read anyone’s
project after it has been submitted and that he usually doesn’t approve
proposals on the first submittal. Hurray! It also turns out the UK professor is
a statistician and has published two papers on measurement of the hemoglobin
A1c. AHHHHH!! How did this happen to me? I feel completely blessed, maybe this
is the plan…maybe this is why I was diagnosed with Diabetes in the first place.

I don’t have any research money, so I
can’t really complete my own research studies, therefore I will be relying on
previously collected data and expert interviews to prove Type 1 Diabetics can
function in space and what testing will need to be completed prior to
spaceflight.

This is how you can help!

If you, or a T1D you know has been
able to control the A1c level below 6.0 for a period of time (3+ months) please
send me a quick e-mail at: nerdyapril@gmail.com
I won’t have a large enough population to actually send out a “survey” and
complete statistics, so I am completing an e-mail “interview” (really, it’s
going to be more like a survey). You can choose to be anonymous in my paper or
not. The idea is trying to correlate these months of very tight control to the
tight control a T1D astronaut would need to examine the psychological effects
(if any) of maintaining this level of control. I could really, really use your
help…and future T1D astronauts will thank you. I am working on a compressed
timeline, so I am planning to send out the interview questions this weekend,
and you can complete them by next weekend. Thank you in advance!

Comments

Although I can't help you in the realm of lower-than-6.0-A1c (honestly it's never been lower than that) I am psyched about your project and would also like to read it when you're done. Biomedical engineer in training, I did once want to be the first person on Mars, I guess I could still make it...

I'll double check with my endo next time I'm in, but I think Scott has the key. I'm pretty sure I was below 6.0 for a large part of my pregnancies. My name is Claire, and I can send you contact info if you'd like. What a brilliant idea, future astronauts thank you greatly!

I caught Scott's tweet today and spread the word as well via Twitter (@jeanne_eckman), Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/FacingDiabetes) and on Facing Diabetes (http://facingdiabetes.blogspot.com/) itself. I am T2D so I can't help with your study but hope that helps a bit! Good luck!

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Disclaimer

I'm a rocket scientist...I diagnose and treat rocket problems, not medical ones!!! Sometimes I blog about my personal experiences as a person living with Type 1 Diabetes, however, this is not to be taken as medical advice.